Life and labour in industy climate transitions

While there appears to be a relatively broad consensus in Swedish society around the importance of addressing the wider sustainability challenges and climate change in particular the question of how the transition can and should be played out still remains to be resolved.

A ‘green transition’ will, like all major societal transformations, impact both social and technical aspects of society and will, depending on how it comes to evolve, reallocate social and economic benefits and costs in different ways.Recognizing the importance of decarbonizing key industry sectors with large GHG emissions and vast impact on society, this project will focus on addressing pathways for transition in two of these: the Swedish petro-chemical and iron and steel industries with a focus on two key industrial regions, Västra Götaland (refineries and petro-chemical industries) and Norrbotten (iron ore and iron and steel industries).

By combining insights from the macro (national/branch) and local level, and by bringing perspectives from civil society, and organized labor in particular, to the forefront we aim to investigate competing goals and tensions, but also synergies, involved in the transition process.

This will include investigations of the effects on the structure of the labor market but also of how key stakeholder groups views the potential impacts of the proposed industrial transition; potential alternative transition pathways; and their possibility to influence the transition process.The project team will be organized around a core team of four researchers encompassing both social and technical sciences.

The team collectively represents a broad and extensive experience related to social and socio-technical change, climate policy and energy systems analysis.

The project will include local and national union representatives, civil society and municipal and regional public officials, and produce knowledge that can guide decision-making and concrete action in the near term.